Vender of the Week: Smartech

London-based Smartech is the UK’s first “immersive tech hub” dedicated to Internet of Things devices and smart technology. Here, CEO Nathalie Bernce talks Smartech’s vision — and the company’s decision to use Vend.

Selfridges London’s new Smartech concession stand is tapping into one of the most-discussed and highly relevant topics in today’s technology world: the Internet of Things. The recently opened “innovation hub” seeks both to be the purveyor of the latest in smart technology and to educate its customers on the benefits of intelligent tech — and they’re using Vend to help them do it.

Here’s CEO Nathalie Bernce on the Smartech story:

“Located pride-of place within Selfridges London’s Technology department, Smartech is the UK’s first immersive tech hub dedicated to showcasing the newest and coolest connected technology on the market, ranging from the slickest IoT wearables to trackable travel essentials and intelligent home products.

As a cutting-edge tech and gadget vendor, we knew we needed to use a retail management system as slick and sophisticated as the hi-tech products we stock. We also needed a system that could accurately track the store’s sales and stock movement and provide us with accurate reports we could access from anywhere. The team didn’t want to be restricted by location or have to be onsite to manage the store, and the system also had to be user-friendly. After some extensive research and many calls with suppliers, we came across Vend and its sophisticated yet easy-to-use software.

Vend is much easier than anything we’ve used before and complements both our store and business strategy with its modern design and focus on innovation and accessibility.

Training our staff on the system has been so easy; whilst the system itself is very user-friendly, Vend’s helpful and patient customer service team were also able to teach our staff how to use the system. They even wirelessly linked the demonstration iPad to an Apple TV receiver to show the program to everyone on a full size TV.

Our partner suppliers also have a keen interest in how their products are performing, so it’s been really helpful for us to be able to offer them accurate feedback. Then there are the little things that’ve made Vend such a success at the store. With Vend, we never have to worry about running out of or tracking our stock. Whenever we’re down to our last five items of a certain line, Vend triggers an automatic reorder with our supplier, which means we always have our best-selling items available. Vend can also show us which of our floor staff are performing best, which has allowed us to incentivize our staff, offering fun prizes and rewards to those who go above and beyond. It just works. It’s amazing.”

Key benefits of Vend for Smartech:

Accurate sales and stock movement tracking (easy to see which items are selling best and decide which actions to take to both improve stock turnover and hit targets)

No location restrictions (the team doesn’t have to be onsite to manage the store)

A sophisticated, user-friendly system that’s “as intelligent as the products [Smartech] sells”